Entertainment

Carmella cashing in on opportunity

WWE Superstar Carmella celebrates with the Money in the Bank briefcase after becoming the first woman to hold the coveted prize, which guarantees its holder a shot at the Smackdown Women’s Championship, any place, any time. Carmella will bring her briefcase to Kingston on Aug. 7 as part of WWE’s SummerSlam Heatwave Tour at the Rogers K-Rock Centre. (Courtesy of World Wrestling Entertainment)

If the late, great Miss Elizabeth could see the wrestling business now, a business she helped grow as a role model to future generations, she’d see one of those lives she touched in the form of World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Carmella, the very first woman to hold the Money in the Bank briefcase.

“I was obsessed with Miss Elizabeth,” Carmella, whose real name is Leah Van Dale, answered over the phone in an interview to promote her coming appearance at a live WWE show in Kingston on Aug. 7. “I thought she was so fabulous and I just loved watching her every week with Macho Man.”

Together, Miss Elizabeth and the late legend Randy (Macho Man) Savage revolutionized the power couple in wrestling, capturing imaginations around the world and forming an alliance that to this day conjures up thoughts of true love, romance and class.

“My dad used to carry me around on his shoulder like Macho Man would do with (Miss Elizabeth),” Carmella recalled of her father, Paul Van Dale, a pro wrestler himself.

“I would wear my own little dance costume,” she added, an homage to her heroine.

Yes, the current Smackdown Live star and former NXT manager is an unabashed lifelong fan of pro wrestling and sports entertainment.

“We would record Monday Night Raw every week so that I could watch it,” Carmella said when asked about her long love for the business. “My dad worked nights, so we’d watch it the next day. Those are some of my earliest memories of wrestling.”

While her father, who was used mostly as an enhancement talent during his career, including in WWE rings, might not be carrying his little princess Macho Man style on his shoulders these days, Carmella said he is her No. 1 fan.

“He’s very proud,” Carmella said, adding that he always calls to give her feedback.

“I don’t know if he ever thought that he’d have a daughter who would be a wrestler,” she said with a slight laugh, before professing, “it’s a different bond than most people get to experience (with their parent). I get to share this with my dad and talk to him about it and he can share it with me, his past with it. It’s really cool.”

And unlike some fathers of aspiring pro wrestlers, who might discourage their son or daughter from entering the notoriously tough business, Carmella said her dad had zero reservations about her entering the pro wrestling world.

“Absolutely no reservations whatsoever,” Carmella said. “As soon as I found out (I had a tryout with WWE), my dad was taking to me a boxing gym and bumping me around in this boxing ring that was definitely not made for taking bumps in.”

With a hearty laugh, she clearly recalling her tough initial training. “He was all about it. He wanted me to do whatever I could to make sure I nailed my tryout. He’s just been super supportive every step of the way.”

Up until that point, pro wrestling had been nothing but a dream for the now 29-year-old Worcester, Mass., native, who was a professional dancer for more than 20 years before getting her opportunity to follow her dad into wrestling.

“I danced for the (National Football League’s New England) Patriots and I also was a (Los Angeles) Laker girl,” Carmella said of the National Basketball Association franchise.

A chance encounter with an agent during her time in L.A. would change everything for Carmella, who had years earlier tried to get the attention of WWE.

“I found out (WWE was) looking for new female talent,” she said of her encounter with the agent, adding that she had submitted to be part of Tough Enough in 2010, but nothing came of it due in part to her new position with the Lakers at the time. “I didn’t want to quit the Lakers because that’s why I had originally moved out there.”

But when opportunity knocked a second time, Carmella pulled the door wide open and greeted her calling with a huge smile and a ferocious determination.

“When the agent brought up this opportunity, I thought, ‘This is perfect.’ My dad was in this business and now I get to bring my background with dance and it just all kind of tied together.”

It was a perfect match. In 2013, WWE signed the aspiring star and assigned her to its NXT brand, by then a rising force in the business. There, she immediately made friends with fellow recruits, Enzo and Cass. As Carmella, she would become the manager of the popular duo. The trio became wildly successful in NXT.

“Working with them was so much fun,” Carmella said. “When I first got to NXT, they were the first two people who I made friends with. We all hung out all the time and what you saw on screen was kind of what it was like in real life, we were just three friends who hung out. And of course, being able to manage them, they were such a popular tag team, I had so much fun with them. It was really such a blast and it’s really cool to see where they are now and how far they’ve come from their NXT days.”

Together, Enzo, Cass and Carmella were part of NXT’s massive rise in popularity, helping build the developmental brand into its own successful entity within WWE, sporting its own roster, live events, television specials, merchandise and more.

“Being a part of NXT when it … just blew up, and being able to be a part of the trio of me, Cass and Enzo, that was just so fun,” Carmella said with fondness, her smile evident even over the telephone. “We got to travel all over the world together and tour with this NXT brand and just kind of saw it grow.”

While much of her time in NXT was spent as a manager, Carmella said she knew when Enzo and Cass got the call to the main roster that that was her calling, too.

“When they got pulled up, I just thought, ‘OK, well I’ve got to do whatever it takes so I can get up there, too.’ Three months later, I got drafted to Smackdown Live.”

Her rise from developmental has been torrential, one that has seen her go from manager to wrestling talent to an integral part of both Smackdown Live and the ever evolving women’s revolution.

“It’s just been so much fun,” Carmella admitted with pride. “It’s been really cool to be able to prove what I can do on my own, that I’m more than just a manager, more than just a little cheerleader for Cass and Enzo. The last year has been so crazy and such a whirlwind. But it has been so exciting.”

The latest coup for Carmella came when she was anointed the inaugural Miss Money in the Bank contract holder, guaranteeing her a shot at the Smackdown Women’s Championship, any time, any place, and a place in the WWE’s history books. It wasn’t without controversy, however, as her manager James Ellsworth helped her capture the briefcase in the inaugural match, a match that was later re-contested due to his interference. Controversy aside, Carmella said, that WWE created the match in the first place is a tribute to the hard work and talent in the women’s division.

“Women right now are taking over this industry and I feel like the sky is the limit,” Carmella said. “We’re having Hell in a Cell matches, main eventing pay-per-views, we’ve main evented Smackdown, we had the first ever Money In the Bank ladder match for women. It’s been really cool.”

It’s a revolution, she said, that is led by wrestling’s most powerful woman.

“We’re very lucky with Stephanie McMahon,” Carmella said of the WWE’s chief brand officer, who is also the daughter of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. “She’s such a voice when it comes to female empowerment and this whole women’s revolution to begin with. It’s super inspiring to be here and just to be a part of everything and see it grow. I think everyone was just ready, ready for the women to take over and that’s the kind of condition we’re in right now in the world in general. Women are just taking over and I’m OK with that.”

While Carmella lies in the lurch, awaiting her opportunity to cash in her contract for a shot at the coveted Smackdown women’s title, she’s content to keep entertaining her growing legion of fans, those of who in Kingston will get their first chance to watch her live as WWE’s SummerSlam Heatwave Tour comes the Rogers K-Rock Centre on Monday, Aug. 7.

“I’m definitely excited for the house show in Kingston,” she said, adding that house shows are one of the most enjoyable parts of being a WWE Superstar. “It’s a different experience from our television tapings. The live events, we get have a little more fun, a little less restriction and it’s more intimate for the fans, they get a different feel for the characters and what we can and it’s just a lot of fun. You never know what’s going to happen at a live event.”

That night, Carmella teams with Canadian icon Natalya to face Charlotte Flair, the daughter of legendary Ric Flair, and the Smackdown women’s champ, Naomi.

With an emphasis on current, Carmella noted. “Unless I cash in before then and then I will be the Smackdown women’s champion,” she noted. “I’m really excited to be up there and it’s going to be a fun show.”

While her wrestling career is really just beginning, Carmella said she knew from Day One that the WWE was her destiny, despite her lack of experience.

“I knew coming in to NXT, without having any experience in this business — I never wrestled on the independents or anything like that — that I really had to bring something different to the table,” she said. “I knew I would never be a Sasha Banks or a Charlotte, but that’s OK, I don’t need to be like them. I can be Carmella and I can be the best version of myself that I can possibly be. I didn’t come from wrestling, yet I’m still here making history along with these other women.”

Not unlike her childhood hero, Miss Elizabeth, who made a little history of her own.